Named an "Outstanding Title" in University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries, 2009
America's Railroad Age was little more than a decade old when Ralph Waldo Emerson uttered these prophetic words: "Railroad iron is a magician's rod in its power to evoke the sleeping energies of land and water." Railroads exercised a remarkable hold on the imagination. The railroad was not merely transportation; it was a technology that promised to transform the world. Railroads were second only to the federal government in shaping the West, and nowhere was that shaping more visible...
Named an "Outstanding Title" in University Press Books for Public and Secondary School Libraries, 2009
The Pacific Northwest, like many other regions of the United States, has been touted as the Promised Land. As early as the 1830s, "Oregon fever" brought missionaries, promoters, speculators, politicians, and settlers to the nation's far West. Spared the ravages of the Civil War and the scars of rapid northern industrialization, the region continued to offer Golden Opportunity. Its promise encompassed the bounties of sea and land, a mild and healthful climate, and an unusually homogeneous population.
Practically since the turn of the century, the Northwest has been a region of...
The Pacific Northwest, like many other regions of the United States, has been touted as the Promised Land. As early as the 1830s, "Oregon fever" br...
